Week 1: Judith

• EndHistorical Context of the BabylonianStory Captivityof Judith

• Fasting

  Worshipand RestoredPrayer at JerusalemConquers

• Restoration of the Temple Begins

• Resistance to Rebuilding the Temple

• Rebuilding of Jerusalem Opposed

Resources:

Body:

Resources:Historical Context: The Assyrian Captivity

• Fr2 TadrosKings Y17 Malaty
  • Shalmaneser, CommentaryKing of Assyria wanted to take conquest over Israel. Coming in from the north, he defeats the Kingdom of Israel, who had had only evil kings; and at present time had an evil king (Hoshea)
• Catena2 BibleKings Commentary19
  • Sennacherib, successor of Shalmaneser attempts to take Judah (Southern Kingdom) captive, but he fails
  • FrJudah Dawoudhad Lamiea Biblerighteous studyking, (Arabic)King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah. They prayed that the Lord deliver them from Sennacherib and the Assyrians and the Lord swiftly answered, sending an angel to protect them. The angel of the Lord went out and killed 185,000 of the Assyrian armies in one night.
  • So Sennacherib went home to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and stayed there the rest of his life.
  • Two of his sons killed him while he was praying to his idols. His third son, Esarhaddon reigned in his place as king of Assyria

  Reading:
  

• 2 Chronicles 33
  • Esarhaddon, wanting to avenge his father, sends troops to Judah to attempt to take it into captivity again.
  • This time, Judah has an evil king - Manasseh
    • EzraManasseh 1:1-11restored the high places of the idols
    • EzraManasseh 2:practiced Skipwitchcraft, soothsaying, sorcery and consulting mediums
    • EzraManasseh 3:1-13raised up altars for Baal
    • EzraManasseh 4:1-24performed child sacrifices
  • Will God defend them with an angel now? Certainly not.
  • Manasseh is taken into captivity and taken as a slave
  • It is worth noting that Manasseh will repent during his captivity and the Lord will bring him back
  • But during the time before he repents, while he is in captivity, Judah is left without a king, and is surrounded by the Assyrian army. And this is where the story of Judith takes place

Holofernes' Conquest

• Judith 1
  • Arphaxad, king of the Medes built a very powerful city called Ecbatana - this is the early days of the Persian empire. 
  • Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, who reigned in Nineveh the great city, fought against Arphaxad and prevailed over him
    • Nebuchadnezzar is not a name, but is a title - and it was used in the Assyrian kingdoms, as well as the Babylonian kingdoms. This is not the same Nebuchadnezzar from the days of Daniel, as that is the Babylonian captivity. But this is Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib. He is the one who moved the Assyrian capital to Nineveh.
  • Nebuchadnezzar was exalted by this victory and decided to continue his conquest. So he pursued Cilicia, Damascus, Lebanon, Carmel, Kedar, Samaria, Galilee and Jerusalem, and even down to Ethiopia

    • 

    • The darker green is the Assyrian kingdom after Shalmanesser and Sennacherib
    • the lighter green is what Esarhaddon was aiming to conquer
    • You can see that Judah is yellow because the Assyrians never captured Judah, although they captured everyone else
  • Nebuchadnezzar sent a letter to all of those places, but they all responded with rejection. So he gathered his army.
• Judith 2-3
  • Nebuchadnezzar sends Holofernes to the nations of the west and he takes most of them, including Idumea (Edom) south of Judah
  • They say "it is better for us to live in service to Nebuchadnezzar, the great king, and to become subject to you, rather than to die, even though we may have to suffer our condemnation into the annihilation of slavery." (3:2)
• Judith 4
  • You will notice that it is the priest who is managing the resistance and the army here - because there is no king! Manasseh has been taken away
  • Judah plans resists the Holofernes and his army
• Judith 5-6
  • Holofernes finds out that Judah plans to resist, so he requests the leaders of Moab and Ammon to tell him who this nation of Judah is and what is their history
  • Achior, commander of Ammon, gives Holofernes the full history of Israel and Judah.
    • "And there was no one who could attack this people, except when they withdrew from the worship of the Lord their God. But as often as they worshipped any other, except their own God, they were delivered to plunder, and to the sword, and into reproach. But as often as they were repentant for having withdrawn from the worship of their God, the God of heaven gave them the power to resist."
  • Holofernes responds that there is no god on earth except for Nebuchadnezzar.
  • Holofernes tells Achior that he will perish with those children of Israel, as a testament to the "falsehoods" he spoke

Still in progress

Key verse(s):

“And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel.” Ezra 3:11

Comments:

• King Cyrus of Persia took over the Babylonian kingdom. Now we are in the era of the Persian Kingdom.

• God moved King Cyrus's heart to let the Israelites go back to their land to rebuild.

• Zerubbabel was the leader of the first wave of people to come back from exile to Jerusalem.
• Many Israelites were established in the Babylonian land and did not want to go back and rebuild a demolished country.
• Chapter two has some of the names who came back with Zerubbabel. Church Fathers look at this in a way where those people who believed in God, offered to work and serve, and left their luxurious, lives were worthy to have their names written in the Book of Life.
• Chapter 3 talks about the beginning of the service and the leaders that led the people to this reformation.
• Chapter 4 talks about the hardships they are facing. We see the devil is not happy with the spiritual reformation and trying to stop what Zerubbabel is trying to accomplish.

Review/recap questions:
**Servant may add more questions

1. Who went to Jerusalem to build the House of the Lord?
2. Give the three main points in the Cyrus Proclamation.
3. . How did they celebrate the laying of the foundation of the temple?
4. Why did the older Israelites weep?
5. Why wouldn’t the Jews accept help from the inhabitants of the land?
6. What accusations were sent to King Artaxerxes?

Homework:
**Servant may add more questions

1. Cyrus made a proclamation to build the temple because:
   a) the Lord filled his spirit b) Jeremiah ordered him to c) he was forced to
2. The House of the Lord was to be built in:
   a) Persia b) Babylon c) Jerusalem d) Egypt
3. Who exiled the people of Israel to Babylon?
   a) Zerubbabel b) Nebuchadnezzar c) Jeremiah d) the Nethinim
4. What feast did the people keep?
   a) the Passover b) the Feast of Hanukah c) the Feast of Tabernacles d) Christmas
5. Who oversaw the work of the House of the Lord?
   a) Kadmiel b) Jeshua c)